Knocking Down Barriers for Student Voting

From Inside Higher Ed by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

Before last year’s midterm elections, GOP politicians were derided for their apparent attempts to suppress the vote of college students, whose views tend to swing liberal.

But some of the barriers students encounter in voting — confusion over registration deadlines, state voter identification laws — would likely crumble with the massive election reform package the House of Representatives passed earlier this month.

HR 1 — named for its prominence in the House Democrats’ agenda — passed 234 to 193 along party lines and has been controversial for the major electoral shifts it would bring about: automatic voter registration, restoration of the voting rights of those who have served felony sentences and the creation of a public finance system, which would give congressional and presidential candidates a six-to-one match for small donations.

Inside Highered has the full story.